Iraq Cry -
Patriarch Abraham's home attacked by the United States of America - an attack upon three faiths in God, Old Testament Israelite (not to ever be confused with anti-Christian, anti-Muslim Judaism) and Christian and Muslim

IRAQ CRY

IRAQ CRY - PATRIARCH ABRAHAM'S HOME ATTACKED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - AN ATTACK UPON THREE FAITHS IN GOD, OLD TESTAMENT ISRAELITE (NOT TO EVER BE CONFUSED WITH ANTI-CHRISTIAN, anti-muslim JUDAISM) AND CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM

Freemasonry - Vatican - CIA - Gladio - Italy - Subversion

Foreign CorrespondentItalian politics haunted by the ghosts of its pastBy Eric MargolisMay 21, 2000SINALUNGA, ITALY - Italy's never-ending mysteries continue to haunt its present. Last week, the Vatican finally unveiled the so-called "Third Secret of Fatima," one of a trio of prophecies revealed to three Portuguese children in 1917. Long held secret, and the subject of fevered speculation, the third prophecy warned of impending persecution of Catholics by an evil totalitarian force and an assassination attempt against a pope.Some 10 million Catholics in Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and Poland were slaughtered from 1920-1950 by the Soviet communists. In 1981, a Turkish gunman attempted to murder Pope John Paul II. While Soviet involvement could not be proven in court, the chief Italian prosecutor in the case still insists the evidence led directly to Moscow. My own research fully supports his accusation.This week, Italian police revealed the Red Brigades, a violent marxist terrorist organization believed defunct, was behind the 1999 assassination of a government official. The Brigades, which murdered prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978 and imposed a region of terror on Italy from the 1970-1980's "years of lead" has reactivated with younger members.Interwoven with these bizarre affairs is a third intrigue that remains one of the most fascinating Cold War mysteries - Operation "Stay Behind," or "Gladio (sword)" as it is known in Italy.According to still fragmentary evidence, CIA chief Allen Dulles, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), and a number of European leaders, created a top secret organization from 1947-1952 called "Stay Behind" as the nucleus of a guerrilla army in the event of a Soviet invasion. "Stay Behind" personnel were recruited in all major European nations from anti-communist groups. Some, inevitably, such as Germany's Gehlen organization, had former Nazi ties. The cadres were covertly trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare in Britain and at US bases in Germany. "Stay Behind" forces generally numbered from 5,000 to 15,000 per nation and included formations in neutral Sweden, Austria,Finland, and Switzerland, as well as Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Greece and Turkey. Secret caches of arms and explosives were secreted across western Europe. Many remain to this day - as do arms caches set up by the Soviet KGB and GRU.At the time, Stalin was threatening to invade Europe with 120 divisions. The danger was so great that France began refurbishing and upgunning the forts of its Maginot Line to resist an expected Soviet offensive. NATO estimated the Red Army's tanks could reach the Channel in eleven days.Powerful communist and socialist parties in Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany, deeply penetrated and often guided by Soviet agents, were a dangerous fifth column. One of "Stay Behind's" prime missions was to assassinate leftwing leaders, particularly in Italy, West Germany, and France, who would aid a Soviet invasion and form Quisling communist regimes.In Britain, a secret group named "Clockwork Orange" purportedly planned to eliminate pro-Soviet Labour Party leaders. CIA poured $200 million into the coffers of Italy's anti-communist Christian Democrats and coordinated efforts with the Vatican and the Mafia to prevent the communists from gaining control of Italy's impoverished south. In the 1980's, CIA and the Vatican again collaborated to covertly fund the Solidarity anti-communist uprising in Poland through financial networks in Latin America set up by the Vatican's banker, Roberto Calvi, and his ally, Licio Gelli, grand master of the highly influential P2 Freemason lodge that, it's claimed, included current opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi.As the Soviet threat subsided, "Stay Behind" faded away by the 1980's, but not in Italy. There, some of the 15,000 members of "Gladio," including senior officers of the army, paramilitary police and intelligence services, were involved in a series of murky intrigues aimed at destabilizing the Italian state and two abortive military coups in 1970 and 1974. Explosives from "Gladio" caches and "Gladio" members were implicated in a wave of terrorist attacks, including the 1980 Bologna's train station bombing that killed 85 people.Roberto Calvi was murdered in 1982. His body was found hanging under London's Blackfriar's Bridge, an obvious reference to the P2 Masonic Lodge, of which he was a senior member. Calvi's body was exhumed in 1998, but the case is still unsolved, though a Mafia boss has been indicted. Licio Gelli remains at large.Sources here maintain "Gladio's" elderly veterans have been succeeded by a younger generation of shadow warriors dedicated to combating the still powerful communist influence in Italy. Rome's last coalition government was headed by the 'reformed' Communist Party, and is now led by the Socialists. Charges are flying that "Gladio" may somehow be behind the resurgence of the Red Brigades in a baroque plot to destabilize Italy's current leftwing governments.From afar, such melodramas and truly strange bedfellows may sound preposterous, but Italy thrives on sinister and serpentine intrigues. Many Italians believe that deep in the shadows behind the official government in Rome operates what is known as the "secret government," a Dantesque cabal of industrialists and bankers, Mafia, the Vatican, assorted security services, "Gladio," Freemasons and who knows who else.Italy is the nation of Giotto and DaVinci, but it remains just as much the land of Borgia poisons and assassins in dark alleyways.

In the next set of articles the index is from the first earliest article - 1. at the bottom of the list to the latest and last 16. at the top. The articles are shown below the list beginning with the first down to the last 1 - 16 in the original French. Below that is an English translation 1 - 16.

1. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (presentation)

The investigation of journalist Arthur Rowse, Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy , published in 1994, was a landmark. It was the first detailed description of Gladio, the Italian network of stay-behind , the clandestine structure of NATO in an American publication. This feature article has not been translated into French. It seemed interesting to fill this gap. The point of view of Rowse is the American liberal progressivism. He understands that Gladio was eventually destroyed the center parties instead of strengthening reinforced and those on the left instead of destroying it underestimates its success deeper. The strategy of tension has, through the spectacle of terrorism manipulated, extreme left or extreme right, to put a halt to the slow shift from Italy to a social revolution, driven by the current those who escaped and were opposed to the bureaucratic management, labor and politics.However, Rowse, who has a good knowledge of the unspeakable below U.S. foreign policy, highlighted the dimension international years of lead in Italy, aspect generally neglected by the most advanced social criticism. And when some authors have referred to this dimension, they are sometimes lost on the wrong track a fantasy manipulation of Italian politics by the secret services of various Stalinist regimes. In 1980, Gianfranco Sanguinetti had refuted this lure:

"[Some] scholars employees, Scalfari to Bocca, reason (...) fraudulently when, while accepting as I have demonstrated that the BR strategy aims inter alia to prevent the arrival of PCI in power, they This result not of dislike that party raises in some sectors of Italian capitalism and intelligence, but the Stalinist Soviet aversion to their Italian counterparts. Our small-time thinkers therefore conclude that Moro was kidnapped with the support of the KGB and Czechoslovak secret services. Italian capitalists, the military and officials SISDE, SISMI, the CESIS, the DIGOS and UCIGOS [ Acronyms some intelligence officials in Italy ] and Carter would be pleased to see the government PCI in Italy, but it is unfortunately not possible because the Russians and the KGB did not want: what bad luck! If behind the Moro case there is the KGB, which is behind the couillonnades Bocca and Scalfari? Is it possible they are hoisted to such heights by their own strength?

Anyway, this strange and stupid theory that the untimely Pertini [ seventh President of the Italian Republic from 1978 to 1985 ] hastened to endorse afterwards, clearly serves to reassure the bad conscience of all those who want to believe that State, since it is at war with terrorism, can not lead "( From Terrorism and the State ).

Some continue to support this "strange and stupid theory" (developed for example in the Red Brigades: The Secret History of BR told by their founder , the work also providing interesting information). Rowse, however, shows how terrorism manipulated results from the aversion of some sectors of Italian capitalism and the Italian secret services and the U.S. , and more importantly, how the United States and Italy have acted together at the end of after the war, to avert a danger red obsessive. From this point of view, the years of lead are the culmination of a long process against COIN implemented with consistency Machiavellian.

[For ease of reading, we divide the survey into five parts. Thanks to NOT BORED! who sent us the original version of the article Rowse complete notes.]

2. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (Introduction)

In January, Silvio Berlusconi appeared on the turbulent Italian political scene mounted on a white horse. Income voters were old centrist leaders dragged through the mud due to massive corruption scandals. While crucial parliamentary elections scheduled to take place two months later and it was likely that the left parvinsse to power for the first time since the Second World War [The main players in the Italian political system since the end of World War II were the Christian Democrats and the Socialists in the center, the Italian Communist Party on the left, and a handful of smaller parties on the right. In the 1994 elections, Forza Italia , Berlusconi created by, is combined with neo-fascist National Alliance and the separatist Northern League to defeat the coalition led by the Communist Party, renamed the Democratic Party left. It was a distant third position remains the centrist coalition. The 1994 elections were the first in which the Italians could vote for a coalition.] , the billionaire businessman entered the lists with the right candidates who had never exercised any charge. Helped by the disgust of voters and with the assistance of leading companies in the media industry, the coalition led by Berlusconi prevailed widely, avoiding the anticipated victory of the left. This triumph hoisted the right, including neo-fascists , to new heights since the end of the war [See, eg, Alan Cowell, "Italy's Neofascists Get 5 Cabinet Seats in New Government," New York Times , 11 May 1994 pp. A1-A5.] . however, real change seemed unlikely because Berlusconi reproduced the old policy under various names and with new slogans. Berlusconi himself was fed by the system and owed ​​much of its success to Bettino Craxi , one former Prime Minister socialist brought before the courts for corruption on the day after the election in March. It did not take long for the operation "clean hands" to do the right upstage by the outstretched arms of fascist salutes and cheers to the Duce.'s rapid ascent Berlusconi vain to most observers by surprise The scene had been set up by almost 50 years of U.S. interference in Italian politics. On behalf of the fight against communism, the United States helped fuel a level of political turmoil that sometimes grazed civil war.U.S. officials and their Italian counterparts took control of key policy bodies, at times reducing the Italian democracy to be nothing more than a testing ground for aggressive tactics of the CIA and the White House. Clandestine campaign, known under the name Gladio (which owes its name to a Roman sword double-edged) was officially recognized for the first time in 1990, when it ended.

3. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (The importance of Gladio)

THE IMPORTANCE OF GLADIO

The Italians had seen many signs over the years showing that the centrist parties (the Christian Democrats and Socialists) were favored and controlled to some extent by Washington. But it is only when the Italian government officially admitted in 1990 that the ruling coalition began to crumble, ready to be reduced to pieces two years later by corruption scandals. The amazing story of Gladio, which continues to make headlines in Europe, was mentioned just in the United States, where many of its dark pages remain secret.In Italy, the program was directed against the Communist threat not hold any insurrection or fail to share power through the ballot box.However, an insurrection was unlikely, since almost all positions in the bureaucracy were busy after the war by anti convinced Veterans of Mussolini, with the approval of the Allies.During the war, most Americans considered themselves heroes who liberated Western Europe from the brutality of his Nazi and Fascist leaders. However, it was not long after the American landing on Italian soil for the liberators are soiled. While some agents of the OSS [Office of Strategic Services, or the Office of Strategic Services, an intelligence agency of the government of the United States (translator's note)] worked with antifascists to help lay the groundwork for a Italian democracy, many of those who were still higher in the scale conspired with supporters of Mussolini or the former king to stop them [Peter Tompkins, Mondo's Men , unpublished.] .CIA denied any relationship with Gladio , although many European secret services had recognized their own participation. But enough information has emerged to show that the CIA had sponsored and financed a large part of terrorism and disruptions that have plagued Italy for nearly half a century. Among other things, the U.S. government:

forged alliances with the Mafia and secret elements of the extreme right of the Vatican to prevent left play any role whatsoever in the government;

recruited former police paramilitary groups Mussolini secretly financed and trained by the CIA, to fight Soviet appearance, but in truth to conduct terrorist attacks that would be charged to the left;

expanded the range of psychological warfare tactics including feeding with millions of slush funds for political parties, journalists and other influential relationships to guide the parliamentary elections at the expense of the left;

created a secret parallel government structure linked to the CIA whose "assets" have tried several times to overthrow the elected government;

and targeted the Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who was later kidnapped and murdered in mysterious circumstances after proposing to bring the communist cabinet.

4. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (Coverage secret NATO)

COVER SECRET NATO

Treaty Organization North Atlantic Washington has provided coverage for its operations in the post-war Italy. A secret clause in the initial NATO agreement required before a nation to join her, she had to have already established a national security authority to fight communism through clandestine executives of the nation. This clause "Stay Behind" turned into a secret committee set up at the insistence of the United States to the Atlantic Alliance, the forerunner of NATO. The Organization also required each of its members to send delegates to the biannual meetings on the subject [Jan Willems, Gladio (Brussels, record EPO, 1991), p. 148-52; interview with Lord Carrington, Newsweek , April 21, 1986.] .

The U.S. authority manifested itself, on such occasions, in the form of a continuous stream of presidential directives transmitted through the National Security Council. In December 1950, the Council gave carte blanche to the army to make use of force in an "appropriate", even if the Communists were able simply to "participate" in government by legal means, or " threatened to take control, "or" if the government did more to demonstrate its determination to oppose communist threats, internal or external. " [Council Directive National Security 67/2, 29 December 1950.]The CIA helped the Italian police to establish squads often composed of veterans of Mussolini's secret police [R. Faenza and Fini, Gli Americani in Italia (Milan, Feltrinelli, 1976), p. 320] . Squads received intensive training in espionage and against espionage, against communists and others who were perceived as enemies of the status quo. The plan to make use of "exceptional measures" had been put together by the French secret service highly militarized, National Security, which had been so hard with the Communists that some of them were refugees in other country [ Ibid. ] .

The newly formed intelligence agency, the SIFAR [ Servizio Informazioni Forze Armate (translator's note)] , launched its first operations in September 1949, under the direction of an undercover American, Carmel Offie, nicknamed "the godfather" by Italian [Willems, op. cit. , p.78.] . The interior minister, Mario Scelba was at the head of this operation. At the same time, Scelba ran a brutal, murdering hundreds of workers and peasants who sought to improve their condition after the war [Roberto Giammanco, letter to Edward Herman, June 24, 1991.] .

5. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (Operation demagnetize)

OPERATION demagnetize

Once the Italian secret services under their control, the Americans then expanded their scope under the code name Operation demagnetize and are connected to a network of existing frameworks in northern Italy.In 1951, the Italian secret services agreed to formally establish a clandestine organization within the military to coordinate with managers from the north. In 1952, SIFAR received secret orders from Washington to conduct "a series of political operations, paramilitary and psychological to reduce the power of the Italian Communist Party, its material, and its influence on the government. This goal must be achieved by all means. " [ U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Memorandum, March 14, 1952, quoted by Willems, op.cit., p. 80, note 21. ]The operation marked the hardening demagnetize institutional Gladio. A historian of the State Department described it as a "stabilization strategy" [See James Edward Miller, The United States and Italy , 1940-1950: The Politics and Diplomacy of Stabilization (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1986)]. although it can describe more precisely as a strategy of destabilization. From the beginning, this offensive was secretly directed and funded by the U.S. government. In 1956, this arrangement was formalized in a written agreement, which used the name "Gladio" for the first time. According to documents from 1956 released in Italy in 1990, Gladio was divided into independent cells coordinated among themselves a CIA camp in Sardinia. These "special forces" included 40 main groups. 10 groups specialized in sabotage, 18 (3x6) in espionage, propaganda, evasion tactics and flight and 12 in guerrilla actions. Another division led the training of agents and commandos. These "special forces" had access to weapons caches, where there were guns, grenades, explosives, sophisticated, daggers, 60 mm mortars, machine guns and 57-millimeter precision weapons [Marco Scalia, "Operazione Gladio" Avvenimenti , November 7, 1990, p.11.] .In 1956, General Giovanni De Lorenzo was appointed to head the SIFAR on the recommendation of U.S. Ambassador Claire Boothe Luce States, women of staunchly anti editor of Time [Willems, op. cit ., p. 82.] . A leading player was now in place Gladio. In 1962, the CIA helped place De Lorenzo at the head of the national police (carabinieri), while it maintained effective control over the secret services.Gen. took him 17 lieutenants to eliminate officers sufficiently engaged right . This was the first step towards an attempted coup d'état extreme right, with the U.S. military attaché Vernon Walters to his head. That same year, in a memorandum to De Lorenzo, Walters suggested types of interventions designed to provoke a national crisis, the obstruction to a center-left coalition, making schisms among the socialists, and funding forces favorable to status quo [ Ibid ., p. 84.] .Meanwhile, according to CIA files found in Rome in 1984, the bureau chief of the CIA William Harvey began to recruit "action groups" from a list of 2,000 people "capable of launching bombs, conducting attacks, while supporting these actions an indispensable propaganda" [Roberto Faenza, he Malaffare (Milan, Mondadori, 1978), p. 70, quoted by Willems, op. cit ., p. 85.] . These groups had the opportunity to show their talents in 1963 as part of an anti-union offensive. Gladiators trained by the Americans, dressed as policemen and civilians attacked construction workers peacefully demonstrating in Rome, 200 of them wounded and devastated much of the city. A former secret service made ​​the link with Gladio in later testimony [Scalia, op. cit. , p. 11.] .Lieutenant-Colonel of SIFAR, Enzo Rocca, also led to the coup in preparation, a civilian militia composed of ex-soldiers, paratroopers and members of the military organization of the "Black Prince "Junio ​​Valerio Borghese, the Decima MAS (Tenth Torpedo Boat Squadron) [M.Sassano, SID e Partito Americano (Venice and Padua, Marsilio, 1975), p .. 75-76, quoted by Willems, op. cit. , p. 85.] . President Antonio Segni know, it seems this plan, which was to culminate in the assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro, finding themselves in the crosshairs because he had not been tough enough with Communists [Stuart Christie, Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a "Black" Terrorist (London, Refract Publishers, 1984), p. 24)] .takeover The long-planned, later known as the Solo Plan, failed in March 1964, the key carabinieri involved remaining in their neighborhoods. As the ensuing investigation were to examine Rocca on the attempted coup, he committed suicide, it seems, perhaps to fulfill the oath of silence is to Gladio. After officials had determined that state secrets were involved, three surveys floundered and failed to identify the guilty accomplices [Willems, op. cit. , p. 85.] .

6. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (the strategy of tension)

THE STRATEGY OF TENSION

Despite the failure of Plan Solo, the CIA and the Italian right had largely succeeded in creating the clandestine structures under operation demagnetize. Therefore, the conspirators strove to renew the offensive against the left.To win the support of intellectuals, organized secret services in the luxurious Parco dei Principi in Rome in May 1965, a conference devoted to the "study" of "revolutionary war." The choice of words inadvertently revealed that the speakers and invited participants were planning a revolution and not just to guard against a takeover imaginary communists. The rally was mainly a meeting of fascists, right-wing journalists and military personnel."The strategy of tension" that came out was intended to disrupt ordinary life by terrorist attacks to create chaos and encourage a frightened public to accept even more authoritarian government [Mario Scialoja, "A Convegno Explosivo" ExpressoNovember 25, 1990, p. 127.] .Several "experts" of this operation had a criminal record and anticommunist activists were to be later involved in some of the worst massacres that gripped Italy. One of them was journalist and secret agent Guido Giannettini. Four years earlier, he had a seminar at the U.S. Naval Academy on "techniques and perspectives coup in Europe." Another was notorious fascist Stefano Delle Chiaie which was apparently he was recruited as a secret agent in 1960. He organized his own armed group, known as the Avanguardia Nazionale (AN), whose members had started training in terrorist tactics plan preparation Solo [Christie, op. quoted , p. 26, 33.] .General De Lorenzo, whose SIFAR became the SID, was quick to enlist these and other men of confidence in a new project Gladio. They planned to create a secret parallel force alongside sensitive government services to neutralize subversive elements that had not yet been "purified." Known as the Parallel SID, its tentacles extended to almost all the institutions of the Italian state capitals. Vito Miceli General, who was then head of the SID, said he set up this separate structure "at the request of the Americans and NATO" [ Ibid. , p. 35-36]. .

7. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (fraternal bonds)

LINKS FRATERNAL

Two ancient and mysterious brotherhoods prevented international programs uncoordinated Gladio disintegrating. The Knights of Malta played a formative role after the war (see The roots of Gladio ), but Freemasonry, through its most famous houses in Italy, known as Propaganda Due, or P2, was far more influential . In the late 1960s, the "Most Venerable Master" was Licio Gelli, a Knight of Malta who fought for Franco with Mussolini's Blackshirts. At the end of World War II, Gelli was threatened to be executed by Italian partisans for his collaboration with the Nazis, but he escaped by enlisting in the service of espionage against the U.S. Army [Willems, op. cit ., p.119.] . In 1950, he was recruited by SIFAR.Having won several years in exile in Argentine fascist circles [On links between Gelli, P2, and the extreme right in Argentina, see Martin Andersen, Dossier Secreto: Argentina's Desaparecidos and the Myth of the "Dirty War" (Boulder, Colo., Westview Press, 1993), chapters 10 and 20.] , he was remembered in Italy as a Freemason. Rapid access to the highest office, he began fraternizing in 1969 with Gen. Alexander Haig, then assistant to Henry Kissinger, the head of the president's national security Nixon. Gelli became the main intermediary between the CIA and SID De Lorenzo, also a Mason and Knight. The first order issued by the White House Gelli was, it seems, to recruit 400 additional representatives at the highest levels in Italian and NATO [SISMI Memo 446 / R, quoted by Roberto Chiodi, "Gelli and Kissinger" , L'Espresso (Rome), November 25, 1990, p. 133.] .To help ferret out dissidents, Gelli and De Lorenzo began compiling dossiers on thousands of people, including legislators and clerics[Willems, op. cit. , p. 83.] . Few years after the scandal erupted when an inquiry found 157,000 such files in SID, all available to the defense and interior [De Lorenzo, before the Commission of Inquiry, 1964, p. 69, quoted by Willems, Ibid ., p. 83.] . Parliament ordered 34,000 cards were burned, but this time, the CIA had duplicates for its archives [Faenza, op. cit ., p. 316.] .

8. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (the right-wing provocateurs)

THE EXTREME RIGHT PROVOCATEURS

In 1968, Americans began commando training in formal gladiators based Sardinian clandestine NATO. In a few years, 4000 officers were placed in strategic positions. At least 139 weapons caches, including the barracks of the carabinieri, were at their disposal [Willems, op. cit. , p. 90 Scalia, op. cit., p. 12.] . To encourage young people to join this risky venture, the CIA paid high salaries and promised that if they were killed, their children would be educated at the expense of the United States [Scalia, op. cit ., p. 30.] .Tensions began to reach critical mass in the same year. While the dissidents took the streets across the world, in Italy, university occupations and strikes for wages and higher pensions were overshadowed by a series of bloody political crimes., the number of terrorist acts rose to 147 in 1968, climbed to 398 the following year, and reached the top of the incredible 2498 in 1978 before going to diminish, largely due to a new law encouraging informers (the "repentant") [ U.S. Senate, "Terrorism and Security, the Italian Experience," Report of Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism , November 1984, p. 62.] . Until 1974, the bombers indiscriminate extreme right were the main force behind the political violence.'s first major explosion took place in 1969 in Milan, Piazza Fontana, it killed 18 people and injured 90. In this massacre and many other anarchists were convenient scapegoats of fascist provocateurs for seeking to render the charge left. Responding to a telephone tube after the massacre of Milan, the police arrested 150 alleged anarchists and made ​​even spend some justice. But two years later, a new witness led to the indictment of several neo-fascist officers and SID. Three innocent anarchists were convicted but later acquitted, while those responsible for the attack were not punished by the Italian courts [Frédéric Laurent, L'Orchestre Black (Paris, Editions Stock, 1978), p. 29, quoted by Françoise Hervet, op. cit. , p. 30-31, and Willems, op. cit ., p. 102-104]. .conclusive links between Gladio and political violence were found after a plane had exploded in flight near Venice in November 1973. Judge Venetian Carlo Mastelloni established that the plane Argo-16 was used to send recruits and ammunition from the U.S. base in Sardinia and Gladio sites in north-eastern Italy [Willems, op. cit. , p. 90] .The climax of the right-wing terror was reached in 1974 with two massacres. One, a bomb in a fascist rally in Brescia, killed eight people and wounded 102. The other was an explosion in the Italicus train near Bologna, killing 12 people and injuring 105. At that time, President Giovanni Leone, without too much exaggeration, summed up the situation: "With 10,000 civilians in arms waving in all directions, as usual, I am a president of crap. " [Franco Giustolizi, "Parallel Retrovie" L'Espresso , 18 November 1990, p. 15.]in Brescia, the initial call to the police also accused the anarchists, but the culprit turned out to be a secret agent of parallel SID [Scalia, op.cit. , p. 12.] . A similar relationship was also alleged in the case of Italicus. Both fascists who were eventually convicted were members of a clandestine police called Black Dragon, according to the newspaper far-left Lotta Continua [Christie, op. cit ., p. 77.] . Their sentences were also canceled. While in this case and in others, many leftists were arrested and tried, fascists or neo-fascists were often the culprits in connection with groups of Gladio and Italian secret services. This reflects the extent to which these forces controlled the government through the Parallel SID is that almost all elements of the extreme right involved in these atrocities were later released. In 1974, the army began to respond left to extreme right terror. She was partisan lightning attacks targeted versus bombings committed at random from the extreme right. The next six years, leftist activists, especially the Red Brigades, reacted with vengeance, committing more acts of political violence that the extreme right [Willems, op. cit. , p. 94] . Italy was on the brink of civil war for several years.

9. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (fomenting coups)

Foment coups d'STATE

Meanwhile, the right-wing groups were busy planning takeovers of elected government, with the active encouragement of U.S. officials. An instruction document 1970 132 pages on "stability operations" in the country "host" school did. It was published as a supplement of the B field manual the U.S. Army. Following in the footsteps of earlier documents of the NSC [National Security Council (translator's note)] and the CIA, the manual explained that "special attention should be given to possible changes in structure" if a country does not show sufficiently anticommunist. If it does not respond with a "force" adequate, continued the document, "groups acting under the control of the secret services of the U.S. military should be used to launch violent actions or non-violent, according to the scenario . " [When the United States Embassy in Rome was informed that top secret document would be published, she said that this would be "inappropriate". After publication, the embassy claimed it was a fake. The full text was published under the title "The Mysterious Supplement B: Sticking it to the" Host Country "," CovertAction , No. 3 (January 1979), p. 11, 14-18. But Licio Gelli said that the CIA had given him a copy. BBC Special "Gladio, Part III, The Foot Soldiers," June 10, 1992.]With such incendiary suggestions and thousands of guerrilla training prepared by Americans, fascists tried again to take power by force in 1970. This time, the "Black Prince" Borghese was the instigator. Fifty men under the command of Stefano Della Chiaie seized the Interior Ministry in Rome after being driven at night by the assistant chief of the political police Federico D'Amato. But the operation was abandoned when Borghese received a mysterious phone call later attributed to General Vito Miceli, chief of military intelligence. The conspirators were not arrested, instead, they left after stealing 180 guns [John Dinges and Saul Landau, Assassination on Embassy Row (London, Writers and Raeders, 1980), p. 163, 170.] .The news of the attack remained secret until an informant has spun a hose to the press three months later. At this time, the culprits fled Spain. Although the leaders were convicted in 1975, the verdict was overturned on appeal. All but one of the guns had been returned previously [Interview with Jeff Bale, professor / doctoral candidate at the University of California] .

It is in this context that the United States decided to once again do their utmost to prevent the Communists to strengthen the 1972 election.Pike According to the report, the CIA disbursed $ 10 million to 21 candidates, mostly Christian Democrats [Aaron Latham, "The CIA Report the President Does not Want You to Read" The Select Committee's Record "," Village Voice , 20 February 1976, p. 23 . The Voice reprinted in two parts the full report of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, better known under the name "Pike Report."] This amount does not include the $ 800 000 that Ambassador Graham Martin, gravitating around the CIA had obtained from the White House through Henry Kissinger to General Miceli [ Ibid .] . Miceli was to meet later convictions for attempted coup Borghese, but on the same model, he was exonerated.police foiled another attempted coup that year. She found a list of beatings and other documents showing the existence of some 20 subversive groups that formed the structure of the Parallel SID. Roberto Cavallero, fascist trade unionist, was involved, as were senior generals who said having obtained the approval of NATO and U.S. officials. In later testimony, Cavallaro said the group had been set up to restore order in case of trouble. "When these problems do not arise [for themselves]," he says, "they are produced by the extreme right."General Miceli was arrested, but the courts eventually freed, saying that there was no insurrection [Willems, op. cit ., p. 107.] .far-right again tried to overthrow the government in 1974, with the imprimatur of the CIA and NATO, it seems. Its leader was Edgardo Sogno, one of the resistance fighters most decorated of Italy, who had formed a group in the kind of Gladio after the war.

Sogno, who had made ​​many influential American friends while working at the Italian Embassy in Washington during the 60s, was later arrested, but he, too, was finally exonerated [Phillip Willan, Puppetmasters ( London, Constable & Co., 1991), p. 107-109] .

10. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (the outcome of Gladio)

THE SETTLEMENT OF GLADIO

Peteano a triple murder near Venice in May 1972 proved central in the unveiling of Gladio. The crime occurred when three carabinieri, in response to an anonymous phone call, went to check a suspicious car. When one of them opened the hood, all three were blown up by a bomb [Scalia, op. cit. , p. 11.] .Two days later, an anonymous caller impliqua the Red Brigades, the most active left-wing revolutionary groups. Police for questioning immediately swept up 200 suspected communists, thieves and pimps, but no charge was retained. Ten years later, a Venetian courageous magistrate, Felice Casson, reopened the long-dormant case, only to learn that there had been no police investigation at the scene. Although he received a falsified analysis of an expert in bombs and secret service he had been confronted with numerous obstructions and delays, the judge pulled up the trace of explosives to a militant group called New Order and one of its active members, Vincenzo Guerra.He quickly confessed and was sentenced to life. He was the only bomber extreme right ever trapped [Marcella Andreoli, "Che di Bomba Esperto! " Panorama (Milan), 18 November 1990, p. 44.] .Vinciguerra refused to compromise other people, but concealed the facts described:"The carabinieri, the Ministry of the Interior, the Customs and Finance Guard, the intelligence services and military, everyone knew the truth behind these attacks, I was responsible and all this in less than 20 days. They decided, for reasons entirely political cover-up. " [ BBC Special "Gladio, Part II: the Puppeteers," June 10, 1992.] Regarding its mobile Vinciguerra, convinced fascist, said that his crime was "an act of rebellion against manipulation" of neo-fascism since 1945 the entire structure based parallel Gladio [ Ibid .] .

Casson eventually found enough evidence to implicate the highest officials of the country. In what was the first application of its kind to Italian President asked Casson explanations President Francesco Cossiga. But Casson did not stop there, he also asked that other officials sweep their doorstep. In October 1990, under pressure from Casson, Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti finishes with 30 years of denials and Gladio described in detail. He added that all prime ministers were aware of Gladio, although some had subsequently denied [François Vitrani "Gladio Revelations Put Sword at Heart of Italian Politics," Guardian Weekly (Manchester), December 23, 1990, p. 14] .Suddenly, the Italians were the keys to many mysteries, including the unexplained death of Pope John Paul I in 1978. The writer David Yallop mentioned as a suspect in this case Gelli, saying that he "ran in Italy at the time, for all practical purposes. " [David A. Yallop, In God's Name (New York, Bantam, 1984), p. 314.]

11. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (Memento Moro)

MEMENTO MORO

The most shocking political crime of the 70s was perhaps the kidnapping and assassination of Prime Minister Aldo Moro and five of his assistants in 1978. The abduction took place while Moro was on his way to submit a plan to strengthen the Italian political stability, which provided input communist government.Earlier versions of the plan were put U.S. officials in a tizzy. Four years before his death, during a visit to the United States as foreign minister, Moro had the right to read the law against seditious gatherings by the secretary of state Henry Kissinger and later an official of the intelligence services anonymously. Testifying during the investigation into her murder, Moro's widow summarized their threatening words: "You must abandon your policy of conducting all political forces to work directly ... or you will pay dearly. " [Giuseppi Zupo and Vincenzo Marini, Operazione Moro (Milan, Franco Angeli, 1984), p. 280, quoted by Willan, op. cit., p. 220].Moro was so shaken by these threats, according to his assistant, he fell sick the next day and cut short his visit to the United States, saying he was done with politics [Willan, op. cit. , p. 220.] . But U.S. pressure continued, Senator Henry Jackson (Washington District) launched a similar warning two years later in an interview in Italy [ Ibid ., p. 221.] . Shortly before his abduction, Moro wrote an article that met American critics, but decided not to publish it [Ibid ., Moro article was published in L'Unita (Rome), May 29, 1978, after his death .] .During his 55 days of captivity, Moro repeatedly implored his peers Christian Democrats to be blackmailed by accepting the exchange of jailed members of the Red Brigades against his release. But they refused, for the delight of official Alliance, who wanted the Italians play the card of firmness. In a letter found later, Moro predicted:"My death will fall like a curse upon all Christian Democrats, and this is the beginning of a disastrous and irreversible collapse of the entire party apparatus. " [Dario Fo and Franca Rame, "What Passion! What Generosity! What Corruption! " New York Times , 5 December 1993, p.A4.]During the captivity of Moro, the police claimed to have interviewed so implausible millions of people and searched thousands of homes. But the trial judge to have investigated the case, Luciano Infelisi, said he had no police officer available. "I conducted this survey with a single typist, and not even a phone in my office. "He said he had not received any information useful intelligence during this period [Moro Commission Report, 1983, p. 68-69, quoted by Willan, op. cit ., p. 231] . Other magistrates suggested in 1985 that one of the reasons for inaction was that all officers involved were the most important members of the P2 were acting on the orders of Gelli and the CIA [Chiodi, op.cit ., p. 134. The deep involvement of the police in terrorism became particularly clear after testimony before a commission of inquiry in 1983. The army colonel Amos Spiazzi remembered that in 1970 he met two officers accidentally carabinieri preparing a bomb near Bolzano, a city in northern Italy. He stopped and warned his post. However, when he led them there, he was stopped by members of the National and Municipal Police, who took them prisoners. He was then transferred to a remote location. Scalia, op. cit ., p. 12.] .Though the government has finally arrested and convicted several members of the Red Brigades, many people in the press and in parliament which continued to wonder if the SID had not organized the kidnapping after receiving orders from and even higher. Suspicion naturally turned to the United States, particularly Henry Kissinger, although he denied any role in the crime. Through Gladio and the Mafia, Washington had the perfect device to accomplish such an action without a trace.

12. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (infiltration of the Red Brigades)

INFILTRATION OF RED BRIGADES

The Red Brigades were infiltrated thoroughly for years by both the CIA and the Italian secret service is no longer disputed. The purpose of this operation was to encourage the violence of extremist left to discredit the left as a whole.The Red Brigades were a perfect foil. With radicalism foolproof, they considered that the Italian Communist Party was too moderate and Moro opening too compromising. The Red Brigades worked in close contact with the language school Hyperion in Paris without realizing it had links with the CIA. The school was founded by three pseudo-Italian revolutionaries. One of them, Corrado Simioni, had worked for the CIA at Radio Free Europe [Willan, op. cit ., p.189.190. The role of the Hyperion language school fits the description made ​​by the prosecutor Pietro Calogero, a terrorist command structure requiring the course taken by the political violence in Italy.] . Another, Duccio Berio, admitted he sent the SID information on the Italian leftist groups [ Ibid ., p. 197.] . Hyperion opened an office in Italy shortly before the abduction and closed a few months later. A police report said Italian Hyperion "could be the most important CIA office in Europe. " [ Ibid ., pp.190-98.] Mario Moretti , one of those who was responsible for the Red Brigades to obtain weapons and contacts with Paris, managed to escape arrest in the case for Moro three years despite the fact that he had personally led the abduction [ Ibid ., pp.190-92] .Magistrate Venice Carlo Mastelloni concluded in 1984 that the Red Brigades had been for years the PLO weapons [Carlo Mastelloni "Sentanza-Ordinanza" (Venice, 1989), p. 412, quoted by Willan, op. cit ., p. 196.] . Mastelloni wrote: "the de facto agreement between the U.S. and the PLO at the secret service was regarded as having a connection with this investigation on the relationship between the Red Brigades and the PLO. " [Carlo Mastelloni, op. cit ., p. 508, cited by Willan, op. cit ., p. 196.] An expert Gladio, Philip Willan, concludes that "the arms supply agreement between the PLO and the Red Brigades were part of the secret agreement between the PLO and the CIA. " [Willan, op. cit ., p. 196-97.] His research indicates that the alleged agreement between the CIA and the PLO was passed in 1976, a year after the United States engaged with Israel no longer maintain political contacts with the PLO.Upon removal of Moro, several leaders of the Red Brigades were in prison, having been delivered by a double agent after they removed a judge. According to the journalist Gianni Cipriani, one of those arrested had on him phone numbers and personal notes leading to a high-ranking member of SID, which has openly boasted of agents within the Red Brigades. Other finds include fascinating discovery in the caches of the Red Brigades of printing which previously belonged to the SID and ballistics tests showed that more than half of the 92 bullets fired at the scene of the abduction were similar to those stocks Gladio [ BBC Special "Gladio, Part III," op. cit .] .Several people noted that it was unlikely that the Red Brigades were able to carry out such a removal of military type, without difficulty, in the center of Rome. Alberto Franceschini, imprisoned member of the Red Brigades, said: "I never thought my comrades on the outside were able to carry out a military complex (...) We remembered ourselves as an organization made ​​up of young inexperienced guys. " [ Ibid .] Two days after the crime, a secret service officer told the press that criminals seem to have received special training commando [Willan, op. cit ., p. 156.] .When letters written by Moro were later found in a cache of the Red Brigades in Milan, investigators hoped they would reveal vital evidence.But Biscioni Francesco, who has studied the responses made ​​by Moro to his captors, concluded that significant passages were deleted when they were transcribed. However, in a passage uncensored, Moro was concerned that "harmonious relations with colleagues Andreotti the CIA" could affect his fate [ Ibid ., p. 130.] .Both people who knew more about the letters Moro was murdered. Carabinieri General in charge of counterterrorism, Carlo Alberto Della Chiesa, was transferred to Sicily and the victim of a mafia-style assassination in 1982, a few months after raising questions about the missing letters [ Ibid ., p. 286.] . Maverick journalist Mino Pecorelli was assassinated on a street in Rome in 1979, only a month after reporting that he had obtained a list of 56 fascists delivered to the police by Gelli [ Ibid ., p. 86.] . Thomas Buscetta, a mafia informant status as a protected witness in the United States, accused Andreotti of ordering the two murders for fear of being unmasked [Alan Cowell, "Italy 1978 Re-examined Moro Slaying," New Ork Times , 13 November 1993, p. A13.] . But last year, a survey conducted by his peers found no basis for a lawsuit against the Prime Minister. Della Chiesa and Pecorelli were only two among many witnesses, potential or actual, murdered before he could be questioned by judges that would not corrupt Gladio [Among other things, included a suspect in the bombing Brescia, who was executed by cellmates in 1981, and a supect in the bombing of Bologna, who was killed by the same prison the following year. Another witness Bologna was mortally wounded in Bolivia in 1982 with the help of the CIA. Willan, op. cit ., p. 136.] . President Cossiga, interior minister when Moro was killed, told the BBC: "The death of Aldo Moro still weighs heavily on the Christian Democrats and the decision I made ​​to sacrifice in order to save the facts Republic, which made ​​me gray hair. " [ BBC Special "Gladio, Part III," op. cit .]

13. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (the bombing of the Bologna train station)

A BOMB ATTACK OF THE STATION OF BOLOGNA

Following the tremendous explosion of Bologna railway station, two years after the death of Moro, many Italians could get white hair - not only because the macabre balance of 85 dead and 200 wounded, but also the inertia authorities that followed. Although magistrates have suspected neo-fascists, they were unable to issue arrest warrants for more credible than two years, due to false information provided by the intelligence services. At that time, among the top five suspects, two of whom had ties with the SID, all but one had decamped country [Interview with Jeff Bale, 21 March 1994.] . T4 explosives found at the scene were identical to the material used Gladio Brescia, Peteano and other bombings, according to the testimony of an expert before the judge Mastelloni [Giustolizi, op. cit ., p. 14.] .During the trial, the judges mentionnèrent the "strategy of tension and its links with" foreign powers ". "They also discovered the secret military and civilian structure tied to neo-fascist groups, the P2 and the secret services [Willems, op. cit ., p. 116.] . In short, they discovered the CIA and Gladio.Their efforts to make real justice in the bombing of Bologna came to nothing because, in 1990, the Court of Appeal acquitted the "brains" of suspects. Gelli, head of P2, was released, along with two secret service chiefs whose perjury convictions were quashed. Four gladiators convicted of participating in an armed band also won their appeals. In this Peteano was the only major case of attack followed by a conviction of the real bomber, through confession Vinciguerra.distressing The court minutes of these monstrous crimes showed how the Gladio network controlled the army, police, secret services and the main courts. With the P2, 963 and his brothers well placed [ Ibid ., p. 119. When police discovered the list of members in March 1981, Gelli fled the country. He was later extradited from Switzerland to appear at the trial of the bombing of the Bologna train station. Willan, op. cit ., p. 209]. , collusion also extended to the highest levels of media and business.

14. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (the balance of Gladio)

THE BALANCE OF GLADIO

However, in the early 1980s, there was enough fingerprints of the CIA in court cases to bring a powerful sense anti-American . Thus in 1981 the offices of three American firms to Rome were the targets of bombings in 1982 and the Red Brigades kidnapped James L. Dozier , an American general attached to NATO , designating as a "henchman Yankee" [U.S. Department of State , January 28, 1982. ]. He was released five weeks later by police commandos, with the help, it seems , relationships mafia of the CIA ["Fat Man, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," Time , 28 February 1983, pp. .32-33.] . However, the damage to the image of the United States by these revelations has been remarkably limited compared to what they did undergo the Italian society and government for fifty years in the name of anticommunism.predicting the ultimate of Moro was verified. Instead of strengthening the center parties, Gladio , with the assistance of corruption, destroyed them. Instead of destroying the left, the revelations of Gladio helped them take control of major cities while maintaining third of the seats in parliament. In the early 1980s, the Red Brigades were destroyed, but the main instigators of right-wing terrorism - the Mafia and the Fascist - remained active [including, in this case, the bombing in a train at the exit of Bologna in the same tunnel as ten years ago, killing 15 people and injuring 267, and the bombings of 1993 against cultural symbols in Rome and Florence, attacks that caused the deaths of 11 people and made over 98 wounded.] .The record led some to question the foundations entirely of U.S. involvement in Italy , particularly in regard to the "communist threat".According to Phillip Willan , who wrote the seminal book on Italian terrorism: "The United States has consistently refused to admit the growing acceptance and without reserve of the Italian Communist Party to the principles of Western democracy, and the latter as an alternative valid parties generally corrupt and incompetent who had ruled Italy since the war. If they did, much of the carnage resulting from the strategy of tension could be avoided. " [Willan, op. cit. , p. 28.] Willan comes to "whether the representatives of American and Italian secret services were not deliberately exaggerated the Communist threat to increase their power and give greater freedom to maneuver. " [ Ibid ., p. 353.]

15. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (lessons Gladio)

LESSONS FROM GLADIO

As long as the American public is kept in ignorance of this dark page in American foreign policy, intelligence officials did suffer a slight pressure to amend their ways. The end of the Cold War has brought massive changes in other countries, but in Washington almost nothing has changed. Ironic in a formula, a mole of the CIA admitted, Aldrich Ames, raised the basic question of whether the United States needed tens of thousands of agents across the world, working first in the country and cons "friends." "The United States, he added, still waiting for a real national debate about means and ends - not to mention the cost - of our national security policy. " [H. Aldrich Ames, "Spy Express Regret, Anger," Washington Post , 29 April 1994, p. A7.]The new Italian government was sold as the revolution of all those who, in fact, were deprived of their voting rights as a clear break with the past. But the fascists are back and gaining ground. The anti-mafia was rejected and the major cartels have tightened their grip on the economy. The brother of the P2 Berlusconi continues to abuse the fear of communist legacy of the Cold War. The authors are still unpunished Gladio and "experts" Washington have the fear of terrorism ever [For example, the seminar of April 8, 1994 Cato Institute in Washington: "Italy: Paradigm for a Post-Welfare- State World? "Where a close friend of Berlusconi, Stan Burnett, focus group right Center for Strategic and International Studies, raised the specter of further terrorist attacks.] : it seems that business as usual in Italy.

16. Gladio: The secret war of the United States to subvert Italian democracy (the roots of Gladio)

THE ROOTS OF GLADIO

Policies that should be developed within Gladio were born during the Second World War, when anti-American phobias were combined with geopolitical fears of a victorious USSR to declare a holy war against the left. The feeling that "the end justifies the means" inside the U.S. government, particularly the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), encouraged the creation of programs "Stay Behind" through Western Europe, officially as a first line of defense in case of Soviet invasion., but the main concern was related to domestic politics. The greatest fear Americans about Italy was that the communist partisans who fought in the North would rejoignissent organizations working to bring the left to power. OSS and its successors were apparently prepared to take any measure to prevent this event, including political assassination, terrorism, and alliances with organized crime.According to a memorandum of the OSS in Washington, the United States seemed to support a plan monarchist who was to serve as a "fascist killers" to commit acts of terror and blame the left [ OSSMemorandum 99 642, 24 October , 1944. ] . American involvement in Italian politics began in 1942, when the OSS successfully lobbied the Ministry of Justice to release from prison gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano. In exchange for his early release, Luciano agreed to make contact with his friends from the Mafia to facilitate access to the U.S. invasion of Sicily in 1943 [ U.S. Senate Special Committee, Hearings on Organized Crime , Part.2, 1951, p. 1181. ] .'s agreement by Luciano forged a long-term alliance between the United States and the international Mafia. He laid the foundations for cooperation between U.S. intelligence and international criminal organizations involved in trafficking of arms and drugs. The sponsor of the agreement was Earl Brennan, head of the OSS in Italy. Before the war, he served at the Embassy of the United States, using his diplomatic cover to establish contacts with the secret police of Mussolini and the Fascists senior [ R. Faenza and Fini, Gli Americani in Italia (Milan, Feltrinelli, 1976), p. 8 ] .Catholic Church also cooperation. U.S. ties with the Vatican were already substantial, and one of the strongest links was a secret brotherhood, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, based in Rome, which dates back to the First Crusade. The head of the OSS William "Wild Bill" Donovan was a member. Similarly other senior U.S. officials, including Myron Taylor, U.S. envoy to the Vatican from 1939 to 1950, and William Casey, a spy for the OSS came to the head of the CIA under Reagan. The head of the OSS in Italy, Brennan had contact in 1942 with Deputy Secretary of State of the Vatican, Gian Battista Montini, who became Pope Paul VI in 1963 [ Frédéric Laurent, L'Orchestre Black ( Paris, Editions Stock, 1978), p. 29, quoted by Françoise Hervet, "Knights of Darkness: The Sovereign Military Order of Malta" CovertAction , No. 25, p. 31. ] .One prominent OSS spies was James Jesus Angleton, who became the leader of the legendary and paranoid espionage against the CIA.Angleton relied on family relationships and business in Italy, to lay the basis of Gladio, forming and funding an underground network of right-wing Italians who shared his fierce style, enthusiastic and naive [David Wise, Molehunt (New York Random House, 1992), p. 40.] . Paramilitary groups were filled with fervent anticommunist ready to go to war against the left. He also helped Nazi criminals mass / fascist Junio ​​Valerio Borghese, such as the Black Prince, he escaped justice at the end of the war [Peter Tompkins, Mondo's Men , unpublished.] .U.S. officials were concerned that communists and socialists might join forces after the battle. The communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in 1948 increased their fears. As a result, the United States plans to handle different fabricated Italian politics. Angleton, who in late 1948 had been promoted to special assistant to the director of the CIA, Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the use of 20 000 Vatican civic committees to conduct psychological warfare against the communist influences, especially in unions [State Department Memorandum No. 866 5043, September 16, 1948, quoted by Faenza and Fini, op. cit ., p. 320.] .'s National Security Council (NSC), which had been created, entered also in the running: "If the Communist Party wins the election [1948]," advised the NSC, "such an attack should be immediately counteracted by steps to extend the provision of strategic U.S. forces in Italy. " [National Security Council Order 1/1, 14 November 1947.] The communists did not win this election essential (no more than any that followed). But it did not put a stop to the attempt to destroy the American left. The total cost of these activities (and various aid programs) for U.S. taxpayers rose to $ 4 billion from the end of the war to 1953 [U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Memorandum, March 14, 1952, quoted by Willems , op. cit ., p. 80, note 21.] . And that was only the beginning of the U.S. attack against Italian sovereignty.